minor celebrity interaction!!

(context of following email exchange: i am obsessed with an obscure 1980s british comedy called Consuming Passions. i spent years forcing people to watch it...they usually fell asleep. then one day it mysteriously went missing. at any rate, i just finished Candyfreak by Steve Almond and felt that it was my responsibility to tell him about the book. so i did. and he responded! yay! i feel so fancy!)

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wowza. sounds great. i'll rent it post-haste.
thanks for the rec & the kind words about candyfreak.
chocolate kisses,
sa

Deepfry wrote:

Steve,

Hello! I just read your book and found it to be quite excellent. i have recently relocated to eugene, oregon from the midwest and noticed, after reading Candyfreak, that they have Annabelle candybars in all the stores around here. i'm now trying to do my part to keep small candy companies alive.

i don't typically email authors of books i've read, but i just had to recommend a movie to you. Consuming Passions, a british comedy released in 1988 is a fantastic candyfreak movie that you should rent (if you can find it) and watch immediately.

The movie, based on a play called "Death By Chocolate" by Terry Jones and Michael Palin, is about a nerdy, insecure Ian Littleton who lands an entry-level job at Old Chum Chocolate Factory. On his first day on the job, he accidentally knocks three men into the vat of chocolate and they are processed into the candies. as it happens, this happens on the very day that Old Chum, having just been purchased by a giant candy company, has begun production of it's new chocolate recipe in which there is no chocolate. in subsequent taste tests conducted on the new chocolates, only the folks who've eaten the chocolate with the people in it like the stuff...everyone else hates it. the company promotes Littleton to some new fancy position so that he won't turn himself and the company in. as you might guess, crazy hijinks ensue involving more cannibalism, sexual bribery, and, naturally, a love interest for Ian Littleton . it's really a fantastic movie. i promise. and it has a strangely all-star cast, despite it's obsurity: prunella scales (of Fawlty Towers fame) as the ditsy secretary of Old Chum's owner, Jonathan Pryce as the evil candy tycoon, Vanessa Redgrave as the oversexed widow of one of the chocolate-processed men, etc. it was panned by critics, but critics are idiots.

you can see the imdb info at : http://tinyurl.com/6dpwl

enjoy!